Zimmers become mainstream global stars

By RICHARD SIMPSON

Last updated at 18:32 07 May 2007

A band made up of 40 British pensioners who recorded a cover version of The Who's My Generation have become global showbusiness stars.

The group, who call themselves The Zimmers, and who have a combined age of more than 3,000 years, have become huge names on the internet, attracting some 1.5 million hits on the websites YouTube and MySpace since they launched a month ago.

Since the Daily Mail first revealed how the group recorded the cult hit at London's famous Abbey Road Studios and planned to release it as a single, they have been swept off their feet by the media frenzy surrounding them.

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They have given television and newspaper interviews to no fewer than 50 countries and have started a bidding war between major UK and US record labels.

The group, which is fronted by bingo devotee Alfie Carretta, 90, were hand-picked by BBC documentary-maker Tim Samuels who was shooting a hard-hitting series on the isolation of the elderly in Britain.

When the hilarious My Generation video first went onto YouTube, it was attracting just a few hits a day. Interest in the band has grown so much that today alone more than 68,000 new fans will watch their video there.

Last week, the group gave an interview by satellite from a Mecca Bingo hall in London to O Globo television which was watched live by 40 million viewers across Latin America.

On Wednesday, the group will be featured in USA Today, America's biggest daily paper with 2.5 million readers.

America's chat show queen Ellen Degeneres is flying three of the band over to Burbank, California to star on her primetime show.

"Ellen's biggest problem is that the series ends in two weeks, which means Ellen either has to get rid of George Clooney or Julia Roberts to get the Zimmers on. We have all the flights booked, but we are still negotiating,", their record producer, Neil Reed of the label Xphonics said.

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Two major US and one major UK advertising companies have offered large sums of money for rights to the video, according to Mr Reed, with profits earmarked for the charity Age Concern.

Others covering the band have included GQ in Japan and the Sydney Morning Herald. They have been hailed under the headline "18 Til We Die" in The Mumbai Mirror of India, have filmed a day-in-the-life pieces for German and French television, and become stars of Canadian radio and Australian TV.

Aegis Living, a billion dollar corporation in America and equivalent of Age Concern in Britain, are to use the video as a corporate promotional tool.

Some 250 independent radio stations have broadcast the song and played interviews with the band.

Mr Reed has also fielded interest from New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa, Columbia, Bolivia, Alaska, Iceland and Argentina. "I have spoken personally to people in 37 different countries," he said.

And it will come as no surprise that the BBC2, who runs the initial series on the band getting together later this month, has commissioned a follow-up series.

Mr Reed continued: "I have been approached by two of the major record labels in the UK, a major in the US and another in France. We are planning to have an album in the shops by mid-November in time for Christmas.

"We have launched a website forum to get the public to choose what they want to band to cover on the new album.

"Apart from Ellen, there are numerous other networks such as ABC who want them on."

And it seems Age Concern will not be the only ones to profit.

"When we do the album, the groups will be paid as artists from the profit. Whenever a major record company becomes involved, there will always be profits. How such profits will split 40 ways, however, remains to be seen."